HIGH ACHIEVERS: Chelsea canoeist Sophia Jensen ‘will not hold anything back’ in Olympic debut

By Martin Cleary

Sophia Jensen is only 22 years old, has been a member of the Canadian national team for eight years and has earned enough international medals in women’s canoe racing to sink her sleek boat.

During that double quadrennial, the Chelsea, PQ., paddler has seen the good side and the unfortunate side of Olympic team selection.

As for the good, Jensen has been selected to her first Canadian Olympic team for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, which officially open July 26.

“It’s so amazing. Now, I’m fully named and it’s an incredible honour,” Jensen said, after Canoe Kayak Canada announced its 16 athletes for the Olympics.

“It’s a total dream come true,” Jensen added. “When COVID hit, it seemed farther and farther away. But as time went by, I pushed and it got closer and closer. I’m really excited to say I will be an Olympian.”

Jensen thought she would be an Olympian for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games, which were delayed one year until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it didn’t materialize.

Laurence Vincent Lapointe, the six-time world women’s C1 200-metre champion, tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Ligandrol in August, 2019, and was suspended by the International Canoe Federation for four years.

Vincent Lapointe, one of the gold-medal favourites for the Olympic debut of women’s canoeing, was shocked by that ruling. But several months after her suspension, she discovered the banned substance entered her system through her now ex-boyfriend, who admitted to using Ligandrol.

She appealed to an ICF anti-doping panel, which allowed her to return to training and competition.

Meanwhile, Jensen had been training hard for a berth on the Olympic women’s canoe team for the C1 200-metre race or the C2 500-metre race. Jensen and long-time boat partner Julia Lilley Osende of the Mic Mac AAC Canoe Club were eyeing the C2 500-metre race.

That period of time before the 2020 Olympics was a low point for Jensen, who was then 18, but sporting a remarkable international junior record and the potential to become a teenage Olympian. At the 2018 and 2019 world junior championships, she won three gold medals each year, including two with Lilley Osende.

“That was tough, especially because it was a COVID year and there was quite a bit of unfortunate politics. It was disappointing,” Jensen recalled.

“We only had one team spot (C2 500 metres) and there was a lot of internal stuff. It was an uphill battle.”

When Vincent Lapointe was reinstated, Canada regained its second quota spot for the women’s C1 200 metres. At the Tokyo Olympics, Vincent Lapointe was the C1 200-metre silver medallist, while Vincent was eighth. They teamed to capture the C2 500-metre bronze medal.

“I did watch their races (on TV). I had a hard time emotionally,” Jensen added. “I trained with Laurence and Kate. It was heartbreaking to watch them there. We had two athletes at the Olympics and they did so well. But I thought I deserved to be there.”

But after living through the troubles of COVID, practices that didn’t go well, being a first-year senior in 2023 and not being named to the 2020 Olympic team, Jensen is now captivated by the heartening situation of being an Olympian.

“2023 was my first year really competing at the senior level at the Olympic distances,” she added. “The shift was big, a huge learning curve. I hadn’t gone through a (full) Olympic training cycle. It was a big learning experience, going through it mentally and physically.”

After several off-season training camps in Chula Vista, California, Jensen paddled well during the first national team trials on that American course in early April. Despite posting the fastest times in the C1 200- and C1 500-metre heats, she finished second to Vincent in both finals by between 1.5 seconds and almost two seconds respectively.

With more than 10 years of local, national and international experience on her resume, Jensen will focus on the C1 200-metre dash for the Olympics. She’ll put her head down, paddle as hard as she can and see what happens.

For her only Olympic race, Jensen plans to take Lilley Osende along with her for the ride in the form of a photo or a memento as a reminder of their teamwork over the years.

“She has been a huge part of my success. I will carry her into the Olympics with me,” said Jensen, who will live with the Canadian team in a hotel about 30 minutes from the Olympic race course.

Jensen doesn’t want the Olympic name on her race to overwhelm her and plans to approach the race “like (just) another race.”

On race day, she’ll likely arrive at the racing basin about 90 minutes before her race and watch some of the competition before she puts her boat in the water for a warmup.

“I’ll get the energy of the course and the people. I try not to be too serious. It’s not my personality,” she said.

About 20 minutes before her race, she’ll paddle towards the start line. Five minutes before the start, she’ll approach the start line area.

“I’ll be nervous, excited. All the emotions will come out. I’ll try to stay calm and remember that I have done this every day and I know what I’m doing. I’ll stay confident,” she added.

Asked if she knew how many strokes she would take in her 200-metre dash, she didn’t know.

“No idea. Not that many. What makes the 200 exciting … is the first eight will be less than one second apart,” she predicted.

“You don’t want to think too much. The race is too short. You want to keep moving forward, look down the lane and make each stroke as hard as possible.”

Jensen was sixth in the women’s C1 200-metre final at the 2023 world championships, which qualified an Olympic quota spot for Canada. She was 1.695 seconds behind gold medallist Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys of Cuba in the final.

At the Olympics, she’ll also likely face world silver medallist Antia Jacome of Spain, bronze medallist Lin Wenjun of China, Nevin Harrison of the United States and Maria Mailliard of Chile.

Jensen, who only raced the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary this spring and was second to Vincent in the C1 200-metre final, is excited about the improvements she has made this season.

Her biggest stride forward has been “becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable.”

If she experiences “a point that feels a lot crazy” in a race, “I try to be more comfortable,” with it, she explained.

“I’m not going to give all my secrets,” Jensen added about other improvements. “I will not hold anything back.”

Leduc, Henderson, Millar among capital region Olympians

Jensen is one of several athletes from the larger national capital region beyond Ottawa who are set to compete at the Paris Olympics, and a number of them carry podium potential too.

Gatineau sprinter Audrey Leduc, 25, recently broke the Canadian women’s 100 metres record, which had already stood for 11 years before she was born. The Université Laval Rouge et Or track athlete ran under 11 seconds for the first time in late-April, clocking 10.96. Leduc is also scheduled to race the 200 m and the 4×100 m relay alongside Ottawa’s Jacqueline Madogo.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls will become a three-time Olympian at the age of 26 when she takes to the links in Paris. Currently ranked 14th in women’s world golf rankings, the winner of 13 career LPGA titles has earned three third-place finishes in 15 events so far in 2024. Henderson placed seventh in her Olympic debut at Rio 2016 and was 29th in Tokyo.

Perth’s Amy Millar will return to the Olympics for a second time after making her debut in Rio. She finished fourth in the equestrian jumping team event, narrowly missing a medal when Canada lost a jump-off to Germany for bronze. The 47-year-old mother of two helped the Canadian team qualify for the Olympics at last fall’s Pan American Games. Her father Ian Millar holds the all-time record for most Olympic appearances by an athlete with 10.

A few more Team Canada Olympians have spent some of their careers in the region.

Women’s road cyclist Alison Jackson of Vermilion, AB, who recently won the Preston Street Criterium in Ottawa, previously competed for Ottawa-based The Cyclery women’s racing team.

Team Canada men’s volleyball captain Nick Hoag of Sherbrooke lived in Gatineau while his father Glenn coached Team Canada out of the Gatineau Sports Centre. It will be the 31-year-old’s third consecutive Olympic appearance.

Capital Courts Academy graduate Cassandre Prosper of Montreal will play for the Canadian women’s basketball team in Paris. The 19-year-old graduated from Cairine Wilson Secondary School a semester early in order to join the Notre Dame University Fighting Irish in time for their NCAA playoff push.

Veteran Canadian Olympic table tennis players Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang lived in Ottawa when their national team’s training centre was previously located in Centretown. Wang, 38, is making his fourth Olympic appearance, while Zhang, 35, will be competing in her fifth Olympics – tops out of Canadians in all sports.

Track cyclist Michael Foley, who rode with Ottawa’s Derek Gee in the team pursuit at the last Olympics, was born in Ottawa but grew up in Milton, ON, where the national track cycling team is based.

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